Kathy's Conundrums

Monday

Nov 11, 2013 at 9:10 AM

What does the future hold?

Kathy Velde

What does the future hold? The headline in an article I read recently stated: “Warming Report Sees Violent, Sicker, Poorer Future.” The report will be issued next March by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Bottom line, the report says scientists have high confidence especially in what it calls certain ‘key risks’: people dying from warming and sea rise-related flooding, especially in the big cities; famine because of temperature and rain changes, especially for poorer nations; farmers going broke because of lack of water; infrastructure failures because of extreme weather; dangerous and deadly heat waves worsening; and certain land and marine ecosystems failing. Back in the mid 90s when I was teaching a communications class designed to prepare students to be successful in the work force, I read a book written by a futurist who predicted that the students I was teaching would not have as bright a future as their parents faced at the same age. The futurist stated that not as many young people would be able to afford to attend a four year college and that many of those who did attend college would not find a job in their selected fields. The futurist predicted that 70 percent of the jobs in the future would not require a four year college degree. What does the future hold? Throughout history there have been prognosticators, seers, soothsayers, heralds, oracles, harbingers, and others who have made predictions, and prophecies. When I was in grade school I learned of the predictions of Nostradamus and the prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima. I thought, ‘wow, a way to know what is going to happen in the future.’ I found a book and read some of Nostradamus’quatrains like this one: “You will see, sooner and later, great changes made. Extreme horrors and vengeances: For as the moon is thus led by its angel, the heavens draw near to the reckoning.” I heard about the three prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima and how the third prophecy was a secret that would not be revealed until 1960. It was suppose to be an apocalyptic vision. When the Pope read it in 1960, he kept it a secret. When it was finally revealed, it was a vision of Our Lady and an angel appearing to a man dressed all in white who with other bishops and people traveled through a city in ruin and climbed a mountain where they were all killed. Since I did not understand what specific predictions these statements made, I read on. In my research I found many different interpretations of the predictions. I was sorely disappointed; I wanted to know what the future would hold! Even today, every time I pick up a daily newspaper, I read my horoscope. A recent horoscope read: “Everyone likes the idea of progress, but far fewer people like the idea of change. You’ll realize that progress without change is impossible and start wrapping your head around what’s to come.” What does the future hold? The future is the indefinite time yet to come. I believe that no one, not the prognosticators, seers, soothsayers, heralds, oracles, or harbingers can tell us what the future will hold. The future will hold change. Will the future be good or bad? That’s up to us.